Formula 1 2016 Grand Prix Of Europe

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After a somewhat bland race in Montreal we head to another new location, Baku in Azerbaijan. Hosted on the Baku Street Circuit which has been dubbed one of the fastest in the world it will be interesting to see who comes out on top. Between turns 8 and 11 will be where most people will be keeping their eyes on as it's one of the narrowest segments of turns of any circuit. Get ready folks, the European GP makes it's comeback in the Transcaucasian country of Azerbaijan.

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BAKU STREET CIRCUIT

FIRST GRAND PRIX

1983 (As a stand alone event)

NUMBER
OF LAPS

51

CIRCUIT LENGTH
6.006KM (3.732 Miles)

RACE DISTANCE
306.306KM (190.332 Miles)

LAP
RECORD

TBA

TYRE ALLOCATIONS
Supersoft, Soft & Medium

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2012 RESULT

1 Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)

2 Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus-Renault)

3 Michael Schumacher (Mercedes)

2012 Fastest lap - Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1:42.163 (lap 54)

SKY SPORTS CLASSIC RACE SCHEDULE
TUESDAY - Brazil 2003
WEDNESDAY - Belgium 1998
THURSDAY - Europe 2012
SUNDAY - Japan 1989​
 
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Does anyone know the length from T16 to T1, since that will all be flat it will be intresting to see what kind of length it is.
 
I'm always excited by a new circuit, no matter where it is. There's scope for some interest, so it'll be fascinating at first anyway.
 
Does anyone know the length from T16 to T1, since that will all be flat it will be intresting to see what kind of length it is.
According to Wikipedia:
"before opening up onto a 2.2 km (1.4 mi) stretch along Neftchilar Avenue back to the start line"
 
If (when) the Mercs are 1 and 2, they'll be out of sight after the first lap with that humongous straight.
 
I will be multi tasking this weekend, with F1, Le Mans and the football. Should be a great weekend !

If (when) the Mercs are 1 and 2, they'll be out of sight after the first lap with that humongous straight.
Canada seems to suggest that Ferrari have caught up with Mercedes and perhaps would have won, if it wasn't for a poor pit strategy.
 
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I'm not the only one who's curious about that 1983 race in Baku, am I?
 
Wonder if Williams will go well here doing to the straights.

Almost all of the corners seem slow and square so RB's high speed cornering advantage is negated and the lack of straight-line speed means they'll be behind Merc, Ferrari, Williams and maybe Force India and Torro Rosso.
 
I doubt it, I don't think their chassis/aero is very efficient.
 
Manor always seem to top the speed traps though, With two long straights and a bunch of slow corners, they could be in with a shout of Q2
 
If the Merc engines are that much greater then can we expect a better performance from Manor?

In a straight line, sure. Their base aero isn't as strong as the top teams but nor is it as efficient. They also lag behind in the size of the "envelope" between their high and low downforce trims. The engine is still strong but that only suits them when they get to run up to the rev limiter.
 
Wonder if Williams will go well here doing to the straights.

Almost all of the corners seem slow and square so RB's high speed cornering advantage is negated and the lack of straight-line speed means they'll be behind Merc, Ferrari, Williams and maybe Force India and Torro Rosso.
IIRC, Williams don't have a great chassis which is what's needed for slow corners, whereas Red Bull do. I wouldn't be surprised if they use those slower corners to build up a big enough gap to fend off the Mercedes-powered teams and Ferrari on the straights.
 
DK
I'm not the only one who's curious about that 1983 race in Baku, am I?
I think you've accidentally synthesised a few conflicting bits of information here. Bernie wanted a race behind the Iron Curtain, and tentatively reached an agreement to to have a race in Moscow to be known as the "Grand Prix of the Soviet Union". It only appeared on a preliminary draft of the 1983 calendar before being dropped. Bernie still wanted a race in Eastern Europe, and so we ended up getting the Hungarian Grand Prix in 1986. The proposed Moscow circuit would have been remarkably similar to Baku, in that it was unusually long (I think it was close to eight kilometres) compared to other circuits, and full of long straights and ninety-degree bends. It was aldo incredibly wide in places, since the roads also hosted those parades where the Soviets used to show off their array of missiles. It pretty much made Hockenheim look like a go-kart circuit.
 
DK
IIRC, Williams don't have a great chassis which is what's needed for slow corners, whereas Red Bull do. I wouldn't be surprised if they use those slower corners to build up a big enough gap to fend off the Mercedes-powered teams and Ferrari on the straights.
That was a popular theory for the Canadian GP but, at least in race trim, Ferrari had the upper hand on the Red Bulls. Red Bull might be further compromised by having to cut significant downforce from their cars just to somewhat keep up down the straights.
 
Redbull should and likely will run a Super low wing here compared to others, like they did in the past at tracks like Spa.

However it looks like it will be Monza spec down force here anyway.
 
If you made a list of Places Formula One Should Be Going, Azerbaijan probably wouldn't be very high on it. It's easy to dismiss this as a backwater country wanting a Grand Prix to showcase how Westernised it is, especially given the insistence on calling it the "European Grand Prix" when the threshold between Asia and Europe has traditionally been recognised as being in Istanbul.

But the Azeris are giving this a red-hot go:

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Any bets on what kind of top speeds we'll see at the front straight? Will it be even faster than Mexico?
 
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